GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Wildwood Park held a grand opening ceremony on Thursday for its new Welcome Center and playground.

The City of Greenville celebrated the additions with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Now, the new facility has even more features. The parking lots were full as many came to check out the new surroundings.

Both projects have been in the works since the park was acquired in 2019 and opened in 2021.

“We have a great foundation of programming events,” said City of Greenville Director of Recreation and Parks Don Octigan. “Now we can take it to another level with the events that we have in here. Now it’s, you know, it’s definitely great for the Greenville residents but also it’s a regional draw for counties around us and Eastern North Carolina.”

After the ceremony, food trucks, face painting, bounce houses, lawn games, live music by The Dickens Band and more was available for attendees to enjoy. The new BMX course at the park was also open for a live stunt show.

Since the playground is for kids, they were the ones helping to select what it would include. Many were busy testing out the new set-up.

“So the Welcome Center playground was publicly funded, cost approximately $1.2 million for the playground,” Octigan said. “We received 12 different proposals for the playground. We had a committee select the playground that did include kids that helped us select the playground, we wanted to make sure we build a playground the kids will enjoy which so far so good.”